James Arthur Williams (December 11, 1930 – January 14, 1990) was an American antiques dealer and a historic preservationist based in Savannah, Georgia.

[3] After serving briefly in the U.S. Air Force,[3] in 1952 Williams moved to Savannah, where he began working for Klug's Furniture Company at the corner of Victory Drive and Abercorn Street.

[2][6] Williams held annual Christmas parties at Mercer House, on the eve of the cotillion's debutante ball, which were the highlight of many people's social calendars.

[14][7] In 1979, during the filming on Monterey Square of The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd, starring Dennis Weaver, Williams hung a flag of Nazi Germany outside of a window at Mercer House in an attempt to disrupt the shoot, after the film company declined to make a donation to the local humane society (of whom Jack Kieffer was president),[5] as Williams had requested.

[8] After the subsequent four trials (the first three in Savannah; the final one in Augusta),[17] a record in the state of Georgia,[18] Williams was acquitted in May 1989, eight years after his arrest.

On January 14, 1990, eight months after his acquittal, Williams died unexpectedly in his home, at age 59, from pneumonia and heart failure.

At the time of his death, Williams was restoring the mansion at 126 East Gaston Street, known today as Savannah College of Art and Design's Granite Hall, which he had purchased.

Williams' sister, Dorothy Kingery, inherited Mercer House and put it up for sale later that decade, with a price tag of just under $9,000,000.

[25] The book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, about Hansford's alleged murder and Williams' subsequent trial for the killing, was written by author John Berendt and published in 1994.

A New York Times Bestseller and finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, the book was adapted into a movie directed by Hollywood veteran Clint Eastwood in 1997.

I had offered [Spacey] recordings so he could to listen to Jim Williams talking to me, regaling me with stories while sitting in his living room in Mercer House.